Peoria man gets 55 years for shooting at officer

PEORIA — A Peoria man was sentenced Friday to 55 years in prison for shooting at a Peoria police officer early last year.

Tony Harris, 19, faced a sentencing range of 35 to 95 years for the attempted murder of a police officer. Harris was convicted in November of firing three times at officer David Logan, who sat in the back row of the courtroom as Harris' sentence was handed down.

"I just don't want to get to the point where we have people shooting at the good guys," Circuit Judge Steve Kouri said. "You have a victim who gets up every day and goes to work to protect people, and he's getting shot at."

The sentencing range for a Class X felony such as attempted murder is six to 30 years, but Harris faced lengthened terms because a firearm was used in the crime and because the victim was a police officer.

According to testimony, Logan was in pursuit of another man, Auston Wood, at the time the shots were fired. Harris' attorney, Gary Morris, argued that Wood, not Harris, fired the shots, but the jury disagreed. No one was injured.

"When you throw gas on the fire like that, we're fortunate that neither the officer got killed or you got killed," Kouri said.

Harris also was sentenced to 30 years for aggravated discharge of a firearm, which he will serve concurrent to the 55-year sentence.

Harris will be required to serve at least 85 percent of his sentence, meaning he must serve 46 years and 9 months before he would be eligible for release with "good time" credit.